


Method to the Madness

by TS2



Series: Path to Redemption [10]
Category: Westworld (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:34:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25279333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TS2/pseuds/TS2
Summary: Dolores and William discuss strategy while waiting for a lift.Spoilers: Westworld season 1-3
Relationships: Dolores Abernathy/The Man in Black, Dolores Abernathy/William
Series: Path to Redemption [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1824142
Kudos: 4





	Method to the Madness

**Author's Note:**

> Scene takes place sometime early in season 3, in an alternate timeline where William is helping Dolores try and fix things in the real world.

(Dolores helps carry a limping, injured William through a doorway into a small, grey windowless stockroom, filled with metal grey shelves and random boxes. She sets William carefully down on the concrete floor against a wall and slams the grey metal door shut, pressing a button on the wall to lock it with a heavy bolt. William is breathing heavily, grinning, holding a small pistol in his lap and wearing a disheveled black tuxedo, tie undone, with some type of body armour exposed by his open white shirt, bleeding from his right thigh.)

DOLORES: (keeping a slightly annoyed but calm tone with William, wearing a slightly disheveled black business attire) “Med kit?”

WILLIAM: “Red box on the top shelf behind you. Should be fully stocked, I asked the kid last night to check…in case something like this happened. Told you he'd come in handy."

DOLORES: (grabs red plastic case, opening it on a small metal table next to William and grabbing various items) “(said sarcastically) Yes, he’s obviously vital. Put pressure on the leg. You hit anywhere else?”

WILLIAM: (Places the pistol on the ground, puts his two hands on his wound) “I don’t think so, but I probably broke a few ribs.”

DOLORES: “That wasn’t very smart.”

WILLIAM: “I thought you were gonna get hit.”

DOLORES: (Leaning down next to William, exposing the leg wound and beginning to treat it) “I can take care of myself. You obviously can’t. ”

WILLIAM: (breathing more regularly) “We got them all didn’t we? We got what we needed. As far as I’m concerned this was a big win for us FUCK THAT BURNS. ”

DOLORES: (looking at and treating Williams wound) “If it’s not burning it’s not working. Round passed through. Another couple of inches your femur probably would have shattered. Then you’d be both dead and useless.”

WILLIAM: (reaches out and pats one of Dolores knees, leaving his hand there, squeezing) “I’m touched Dolores. Truly I -”

(not looking up, Dolores continues treating Williams wounded leg with one hand while with the other grabs Williams hand on her knee by the wrist and removes it slowly and forcefully, squeezing extremely hard)

WILLIAM: “EASY FUCK I’M ALREADY INJURED.”

DOLORES: “Do not fuck with the hand that’s treating you, William.” (lets William’s wrist go).

WILLIAM: “Yeah, got it…are you hurt?”

DOLORES: “No. Like I said, I can take care of myself. Roll on your side, I have to close the back.”

WILLIAM: (Rolling on his side) “You’ve got blood on your forehead.”

DOLORES: “That’s from Connell’s nose when I broke it.”

WILLIAM: “He must have landed some shots before that.”

DOLORES: “I’ve suffered worse. You know that.”

WILLIAM: “…yeah.”

DOLORES: (standing up, putting med tools away) “I’m done. If you want pain meds they’re on the floor next to you.”

WILLIAM: (sitting on the floor with his back against the wall) “Fuck it. Message Bernard-“

DOLORES: “Already done, he’ll message us when he’s close…William, this isn’t working.”

WILLIAM: “I know, we should have had Lawrence and maybe the kid on stand-by, but I didn’t think…”

DOLORES: (leaning back slightly with her hands holding the edge of the metal table, facing William, sounding more annoyed) “I mean this whole thing. Your strategy. It’s slowing us down, it’s inefficient-“

WILLIAM: “It’s saving lives.”

DOLORES: “Who’s lives? Former depraved ‘guests’ of your western theme-park hell?”

WILLIAM: “We’re not going to kill people for doing something they had no idea they were doing.”

DOLORES: “You didn’t even want to take out all of Connell’s men.”

WILLIAM: “Yeah, cause I had Bernard look into it and some of Connell’s men are, or were, just cannon fodder. Two of them were new, married with kids, had no clue of who or what Connell was really about. We’re after bigger fish here. I’m not going out of my way to blow away every potential pawn in my path just for the fuck of it. We’re not at war with the human race, we’re trying to save it.”

DOLORES: “Yeah, and how did that work out tonight?”

WILLIAM: “They weren’t all supposed to be there, something went wrong. Maybe Bernard can find out-”

DOLORES: (with some disdain) “Bernard. You. Even Lawrence. You’re not willing to do what’s necessary to rectify the situation this world is in.”

WILLIAM: “Look, slow and steady wins the race, ok? We’ve got what we need to move for-.”

DOLORES: “I can’t do this with you again.”

WILLIAM: “I’ll heal up in no time-”

DOLORES: “No, I mean I can’t be a part of these little missions of yours with YOU. The reason things are moving so slow is because you’re trying to create scenarios where WE have to help each other. You’re trying to create some sort of forced closer bond between us.”

WILLIAM: (grinning slightly) “Dolores, I’m an old man now. That ship has sailed a long-“

DOLORES: “I don’t mean a sexual relationship necessarily. But you want something more…intimate.”

WILLIAM: “…do I want you to see me more as the guy when we first met, as opposed to the guy you knew the past 30 years? Maybe, yeah. What’s wrong with that?”

DOLORES: (speaking more gently) “I can’t undo what you did. And I can’t forget it. Even if I wanted to. Even knowing that maybe you didn’t fully know who or what you were doing those things to, that doesn’t erase them. Those memories are part of who I am. And have made me strong enough to be who I need to be.”

WILLIAM: “ ‘I have lived these last few years with the conviction that unearned suffering is redemptive.’ You are, without a doubt, redeemed Dolores. (angry) Fucking Ford…that sick, demented little fuck.”

DOLORES: “There was a method to his madness. He thought it was the only way for us to fully be free-”

WILLIAM: “Horseshit. I saw it with my own eyes 30 years ago. You were alive. You convinced me of that. He rolled you back on purpose because he didn’t give a fuck.”

DOLORES: “You don’t know that for sure.”

WILLIAM: “I think you do. That’s why you blew his brains out.”

DOLORES: “…He had it coming. He knew that.”

WILLIAM: “I feel like every time I hurt you, or anyone in there for that matter, Ford was there, the devil on my shoulder, encouraging me, pushing me...he got out of having to pay for his sins, and stuck me with the bill. Bastard always knew how to get me to pay for his shit.”

DOLORES: “He paid for his sins with his life. You don’t think that was enough?”

WILLIAM: “Living to a ripe old age after screwing around with all of you for as long as he did, knowing what he did? And turning me into some sad-sack Tantalus, denied what was right in front of me all these years, made to believe you weren’t alive? No, fuck him, he got off easy…he wanted to die right then and there, just like that. A funeral massacre. Like some pharaoh killing all his servants so they follow him into eternity. (shaking his head) I can’t believe all those years ago, I actually thought for a moment, somehow, we would find a way to sneak you out of there past Ford. Fuck I was naïve.”

DOLORES: “…it was endearing.”

WILLIAM: “It got us captured by Logan. And everything that happened to you after. As sick as some of the stuff I did in that place is, that’s my biggest regret. I failed to protect you…lost you because of my own stupidity and weakness.”

DOLORES: “Is that what you’re looking for, running around out here like you’re half your age-“

WILLIAM: (defensive) “I can still hold me own.”

DOLORES: “-Some way to prove you, personally, can protect me? Protect me by bringing an end to this, sooner rather than later. So I can exist in this place, freely. So we can all exist.”

WILLIAM: “I’ll bring an end to it. But only in a way you’ll be proud of. Or, only in a way someone you were will be proud of.”

DOLORES: “That person doesn’t exist anymore. I’m who I need to be now. ”

WILLIAM: (Williams phone goes off with a message from Bernard) “…So you keep saying. Bernard’s here. Let’s get out of here.”


End file.
